Colder Thorns
by Silver-WhiteKyurem
Summary: Mark and his small group of friends have been investigating "paranormal" activity for two years and only found little things. What happens one Superbowl night when something much more intimidating and mysterious than a simple ghost story literally bumps into him?
1. Chapter 1

**Colder Thorns**

**Chapter One**

**Superbowl Night**

"And another touchdown for the Ravens! I tell you what, they're sure doing good in this game!"

"Yes they are, but you can't count the 49er's out yet! They've been playing pretty well, too!"

The small group of teenagers grunted and shouted as the screen suddenly froze. It took them a moment to realize that someone had paused it. One of them, a short blonde girl with olive green eyes, glared at the person holding the remote.

"Mark, turn the game back on! My team's winning!" she complained loudly.

"Calm down, Valerie. I just need to take the trash out to the dumpster really fast, and I don't wanna miss the game. Will one of you line the garbage can while I take this out?" the boy holding the remote asked, looking over the group seated around his television.

There was Valerie, who was rolling her eyes and turning her attention back to the food on the table in front of them. Then there was Abel, a tall exchange student from Japan with sandy brown hair and eyes. He was typing busily on his phone, apparently talking to someone from back home on Facebook. Then there was Gabe, a squat, slightly chubby boy who was a major sports enthusiast. Mark was a boy of medium height with brown hair and hazel eyes.

The group had gathered at Mark's dorm on the college campus to watch the 2013 Superbowl. Only Valerie and Gabe were really interested in the game. Mark watched for the commercials; being a marketing major, he was interested in seeing the different marketing techniques they used. Abel was completely ignoring it, preferring to chat on his iphone.

The four college juniors were the most unlikely group of friends on campus, but they were held tightly together by one thing; their love for the paranormal. They loved to go out to places looking for ghosts and the like together, and prided themselves on having experienced a few strange, unexplainable things during their short careers as paranormal investigators. They were merely amateurs, but why do it if it wasn't fun, right?

"Mark, I'll line the garbage. Just hurry up on the way back, alright? I don't wanna wait on you." Gabe said quickly, climbing to his feet and going to the kitchen for a trash bag.

Mark grinned and jogged out the door, carrying a garbage bag full of chicken bones, pizza boxes, and paper cups over his shoulder. His dorm was on the second story, so he walked carefully down the stairs before running out past the large parking lot next to the building. A large gray dumpster stood next to the road, and Mark quickly hefted the garbage bag into it. He smiled and dusted his hands off against his pants legs, looking out over the college campus with a small smile.

He had been a student here for two years and he never quite got over the beauty of it. It was nearly silent out; most people were inside watching the Superbowl. There were a lot of parties going on now. It was no mystery that several would be busted by campus police tonight. Mark gave a satisfied sigh, watching his breath float into the air in a thin cloud, before turning to walk back to his dorm.

He walked slowly back, whistling to himself and looking around at all of the apartment buildings around him. He turned the corner to his building and nearly froze at what he saw.

There was a man walking toward him. The man was a few inches taller than him, and wore a black business suit. He had short, scruffy brown hair that framed a rather beautiful face. He carried what looked like a tree lopper in one hand, balancing the object over his shoulder nonchalantly. Mark couldn't see any hint of breath coming from the man as he approached him, and he felt a heavy uneasiness fall into the pit of his stomach. He couldn't see the strange person's eyes, for he had his head held down and his bangs shaded his eyes from view.

Mark cleared his throat and kept walking, keeping his eyes glued to the approaching stranger. As he passed, he made sure to bump into the man's side; just to make sure he wasn't seeing some sort of sugar-induced illusion. Not only did he bump into something solid. He bumped into something solid that apparently didn't appreciate being touched. The man stopped and turned slightly, then his legs wobbled a bit and he coughed harshly. Mark froze as the man barked loud, agonized coughs. He was about to offer help when the coughing fit stopped and the man stood up, looking up into Mark's eyes. Mark went numb with fear.

The man's eyes were the most vibrant green he had ever seen, with goldish-yellow around the pupils. They glowed like fireflies in the cold night, and the man narrowed them at him and snorted angrily.

"Shōjiki ni." the man muttered impatiently before striding up the sidewalk briskly. **(I tried to get the translation for "honestly" in Japanese. If this is wrong, I'm really sorry!~Silver)**

Mark stared after him in stunned silence for a moment before running to catch up to him. The man heard him and stopped, looking over his shoulder at the somewhat terrified college student. His vibrant green eyes pierced Mark with a cold glare, and Mark stopped a few feet away from him and stared at him.

"What...what are you?" Mark asked in a light voice.

He was certain from the moment that he saw those haunting green eyes that this wasn't a human man he had bumped into. He was terrified of this man, but curious and drawn to him all at the same time. This was what he and his friends had been looking for for the past two years! A _real, _definitely real, paranormal entity of some sort, and it had wandered purposefully onto the college campus! It had to be fate of some sort!

The man watched him for a moment and adjusted the strange bladed instrument he carried over his shoulder before answering.

"Shinigami." he muttered quietly before turning and continuing up the sidewalk.

Mark watched him in confused silence. He had clearly heard what the man had said, but had not understood. He had never heard the term "Shinigami" before, but he had a feeling that both of the things the man had said to him were Japanese. He rushed back to his apartment, eager to talk to his friends and ask Abel about the words.

The others looked up quickly when Mark burst through the door, his face pale and panting heavily.

"It's about time! We were starting to think you had been picked up by some creepy pervert or something." Gabe joked, not noticing how shaky their friend was.

"From the look on his face, he might have narrowly escaped one. What happened?" Valerie asked, concerned.

The group got up and walked to their friend as he closed the door behind him and sat down at the table next to it. He sighed and shook his head before speaking.

"I saw something you guys. Not just saw it. Bumped into it, spoke to it, heard it make intelligent replies. I think. It was speaking what I think was Japanese, so I didn't really understand..." Mark babbled quickly.

"Wait, slow down. Right now _you're _not making any sense. What happened?" Gabe asked, his eyes wide and excited.

"I was walking back from the dumpster and I saw this man walking toward me. He was taller than me, with dark brown hair, and was wearing a really nice black business suit. H was carrying this weird blade thing with him, it looked like a blade on a pole. Like a tree lopper used to cut off tree branches or something. I bumped into him to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and he went into this horrible coughing fit. I thought he was gonna die right there. Then he glared at me with these freaky vibrant green-gold eyes and said something that sounded like Japanese, in an angry tone." Mark explained, and the others listened with fascinated excitement and fear.

"What did he say?" Abel asked curiously.

"Shōjiki ni or something like that."

"Shōjiki ni? That means honestly. He was scolding you for bumping into him!" Abel grinned, "What else did he say?"

The whole group was getting jittery with excitement and fear. They knew that if this really was something supernatural, it probably wasn't wise to go after it. However, they weren't exactly wise in themselves. They were curious, which could prove to be very dangerous.

"I asked him what he was, since it was clear he wasn't human. He said "Shinigami" before hurrying away." Mark replied.

Abel blinked a few times and went pale, pulling a horrified face.

"Mark...Shinigami means Death God. You...met a grim reaper."

**Dun Dun Dunnn! A Shinigami wandering through a college campus? What the Hell is going on? We shall see! And no, I'm not gonna connect this to any of my other stories. This is for fun. Allons-y!**

**~Silver **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Recklessly Chasing Death**

Abel, Valerie, and Gabe ran quickly after Mark as he ran excitedly from his apartment, looking around frantically for the Shinigami.

"Abel, tell me more about Shinigami while we look for him!" Mark called over his shoulder, jumping down the stairs with his friends close on his heels.

"We should leave him alone, he might be looking for a soul! Shinigami reap and collect the souls of the dead, and judge them for Heaven or Hell. We don't want to piss one off!" Abel yelled back, looking nervous.

"I've already pissed him off, might as well follow through."

The others sighed and followed him nervously, the football game forgotten in the supernatural excitement. Mark ran to the edge of the road and stopped, looking around carefully. The others stopped behind him, watching anxiously.

"I think we should go back. We don't want to mess with a grim reaper. Isn't that a bit much for us?" Gabe asked.

"Maybe for _you_, but I think we'll be okay. They can't reap us if we're not meant to die, can they?" Mark turned to look at Abel.

"Well, this is just legend. Shinigami are _capable _of killing souls not meant to die with their Death Scythes. They just usually _don't,_ because it's against their work ethics. They are neither good nor evil. They are completely neutral, they just collect souls." the Japanese student said carefully.

"Hey, is that him?" Valerie whispered, pointing somewhere down the road.

They could faintly make out the shape of a man walking down the road, carrying some sort of rod over his shoulder. Mark grinned widely.

"Has to be! Come on, let's go talk to him! We've already gone this far, there's no stopping now!" he shouted before running after the mysterious man.

The man seemed to have slowed his pace since Mark's earlier encounter with them, and made no attempt to outrun the curious teenagers. He could hear them coming from a mile away, but did nothing to stop them. He didn't even turn to look at them. The nervous group stopped running once they were about ten feet behind him, and followed him silently while keeping that distance. He sighed as he felt their gaze on the back of his head.

"If you lot are going to follow me, you might as well come up here so I don't have to yell!" he called back at them, smirking a bit to himself when he heard their gasps.

The teens were quick to fall into step next to the man, keeping a safe  
distance and watching him warily out of the corners of their eyes.

"You're a Shinigami?" Mark finally asked after a minute of awkward silence.

"Yes, as I told you earlier, I am a Shinigami. Who are you lot and why are you following me?" the man answered quietly.

"My name is Mark, and these are my friends Abel, Valerie, and Gabe. We're amateur paranormal investigators." Mark answered seriously, trying to contain his curiosity and be respectful.

"You're following me because I fall into the category of paranormal." the Shinigami chuckled at them.

"Pretty much. Uhm, by the way...I'm sorry I bumped into you earlier. I didn't mean to piss you off." Mark apologized quickly.

The Shinigami chuckled and shook his head, looking over all of the teenagers in turn. They all gasped and cowered a bit when his green eyes fell on them, and he sighed.

"Don't freak out, I'm not here to collect a soul. I like to walk out here after work. And it's okay. I wouldn't have been angry had you not aggravated my condition." he said.

"Your condition? I thought Shinigami were immortal?" Abel asked curiously.

"We can only be killed with a Death Scythe, or through the condition I have. It's a curse laid on a Shinigami by a vengeful soul called the Thorns of Death. Normally we are resistant to it, but I got it when I was completely open. The thorns start in the hands and work their way to the heart. Mine are in my ribcage, have been for years. If they pierce my heart, I will die."

"Is there not a cure?" Valerie asked, looking concerned.

"No. There is medicine that I take to slow their progression, which is why I am still alive. The Thorns only stick when a Shinigami is sentimental and feels for the dead. I was, and got the curse. Now that I know that, I have closed my heart to such emotion. This slows the Thorns as well."

"So when I bumped into you-" Mark began, only to be interrupted.

"When you bumped into me, one of the Thorns grazed my lung and caused a coughing fit. I'm fine." the Shinigami said quickly.

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Abel asked.

"Because people will think you're insane if you tell them, so I see no reason not to." the Shinigami shrugged.

The teenagers thought this over for a moment and sighed, knowing full well that the Shinigami was right. Mark smiled and looked back at him.

"What's your name?" he asked hopefully.

"Alan Humphries." the man answered.

"Okay. So, when we met earlier, you scolded me in Japanese. Why?"

Alan sighed; humans could be so curious.

"When I became a full-blooded Shinigami, I worked in London. That was from 1800 to 1900. Then my department was moved to Tokyo, Japan, from 1900-2010. In 2010 we were moved to this part of the United States. Me move every hundred or so years so that people who do see us don't get too suspicious. I spoke in Japanese because I like how some of the words roll off the tongue." Alan answered matter-of-factually.

"Can you tell us more about the other Shinigami?" Gabe asked.

"No. This is where I leave you. We may meet again, but for now I am going home. Goodbye."

Alan said abruptly, and the teens looked confused.

"Would you consider us friends, Alan?" Valerie asked hopefully; she was always eager to make friends with anyone she could.

Alan sighed and glanced back at them.

"As I said, I closed my heart to such things to protect my life. I have a few friends, it could be hazardous to make more. We are...acquaintances. Goodbye, humans." Alan waved his Death Scythe at them and continued down the road on his own.

The four teens watched Alan in stunned silence as he walked. Once he had vanished from sight, they looked at each other and grinned.

"Anyone else think that was awesome?" Mark asked.

"Yeah. I hope we see him again! He was cute!" Valerie giggled.

"Don't get your hopes up, you heard him. No more friends, it could kill him. Anyway, what do we do now?" Abel asked.

Gabe grinned and gestured back toward Mark's apartment.

"Let's go watch the rest of the game for now! I wanna see the Ravens kick some tail!"

**Yay yay chapter two! I adore Alan Humphries! I wants a plushie of him! Allons-y!**

**~Silver**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Table for Two**

Alan sighed as he walked between the apartment buildings of the college campus. He was getting close to the apartment where that boy Mark lived. Ever since they had met that night a few months ago, the boy and sometimes his friends would be sitting outside on the deck, waiting for him. He didn't walk on campus every night; in fact, his walks were getting less frequent. The Thorns bothered him more and more recently, and he often found himself running out of energy.

Whenever he did walk out here, though, those curious teenagers were almost always there. They would wave down at him as he passed, and he would simply nod back at them. Sometimes they followed him and chattered amongst themselves, quickly learning that Alan preferred to ignore their conversations. They would follow him to the end of the road, then stop as he continued on. It was a routine of sorts, one that the teens had eagerly fallen into.

As he passed, he looked up to the deck outside the apartment, adjusting his glasses with the end of his scythe a bit. The whole group was up there, and they waved at him per usual. He nodded back at them and continued on his way, noting the devious look on Mark's face. The kid was plotting something. The Shinigami sighed and rolled his eyes. He didn't really care what the humans did, as long as they didn't bother him. If it got to that point, he would have to scare them off or something.

Up on the porch, Mark grinned at his friends as the Shinigami turned the corner and out of sight.

"Let's follow him." he suggested mischievously.

"To the end of the road?" Valerie asked, sensing something behind the boy's grin.

"Farther. Let's follow him to the edge of campus."

The others exchanged looks and stared at him nervously.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Mark. What if he gets pissed at us?" Gabe asked.

"I don't think he'll do anything to us. He seems to be feeling better tonight." Mark suggested with a convincing smile.

The others sighed. It was true, Alan seemed to be doing better tonight than on other nights they had seen him. Sometimes when walking with him they would have to stop because he would go into one of his coughing fits. He always refused their help in these moments and insisted that he would be fine, but it was clear that the Thorns of Death were bothering him. On their last walk, Alan had actually collapsed and screamed in agony. They had been extremely lucky the campus police didn't drive by. It would be hard to explain the man's agonized cries.

"Fine, but if he gets mad we're blaming you." Abel agreed, and the others nodded.

"Accepted. Let's go. We'll keep a good distance from him." Mark smiled and led the group down the stairs to the road.

It wasn't hard to spot Alan, a lonely shadow walking slowly down the road toward the edge of campus. The four curious teenagers followed him as quietly as possible, keeping far back. Alan sensed them behind him and chuckled; they were tailing him. He found it amusing, and ignored them as they passed the spot where he usually left them.

Soon he reached another group of residence areas on campus, surrounded by trees with a small pond near the campus edge. There were several benches set up around the pond, and even a swinging chair strung from one of the trees. The teens gasped as they saw that there was someone sitting in the swinging chair.

"Hello, Eric." Alan greeted the person, who in turn looked over his shoulder at him.

The man wore the same black business suit that Alan did, with glasses to boot. He had interesting hair, with half of it black and the other half a sandy blonde. The black half stuck to the side of his head in tight corn rows, and the blonde was somewhat combed over the other side of his head. A saw leaned casually against the side of the swing, and it was clear from the man's acid-green eyes that he was a Shinigami as well.

Eric grinned at Alan and gestured for him to sit next to him.

"There you are, Alan. I thought you were going to be late again. How are the Thorns treating you?" the somewhat older looking Shinigami asked.

"Better tonight. I've not had an attack all day." Alan replied, sitting next to him.

"Sounds like a good day."

"Best one all week."

The teens hid behind trees and watched, fascinated, as the two Shinigami talked. From the laid-back way they talked, it was clear that they were very comfortable with one another. They talked about work, and Alan even laughed as Eric made snide jokes about someone named Grell. Could this "Eric" be one of Alan's few friends?

"Sounds like they know each other quite well." Gabe whispered, flushing as the others quickly shushed him.

Over on the swinging chair, Alan sighed and glanced over his shoulder in their general direction at the same time that Eric did.

"Looks like you have some curious new friends, Alan?" Eric asked with a playful smirk.

"Acquaintances. I met them while I was out walking on Superbowl night." Alan remarked offhandedly.

"I was wondering where you were that night. We missed you at Ronald's Superbowl party."

"Ronald threw that party for two reasons; to try to get William drunk, and to pick up women."

"And he achieved both. William passed out on his couch."

Alan smirked.

"And woke up at Grell's place, right?"

Eric chuckled and stood up, stretching.

"You got it. Had anything to eat yet?" he asked with a smile.

"Nah. Wanna grab something?"

"You bet."

Alan smirked and looked over his shoulder at where Mark and his friends were watching them. Both Shinigami waved at them, and Alan gave them a smile that was somehow extremely unnerving.

"I suggest you lot go home. Oh, and if you ever try to follow me without my permission again I'll take your souls and feed them to a demon. Bye~." he said in a voice so sweet it was downright creepy.

The teens shrieked fearfully and ran off, too panicked to hear Eric's roaring laughter as they scampered away. Eric grinned at his friend, coworker, and former student.

"Would you seriously feed them to a demon?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Alan chuckled.

"No, but it got them away. They won't do that again. Humans are strange creatures." he remarked with a smile.

"Come on, Alan. Let's go get something to eat."

Alan nodded and followed Eric as he walked off campus.

"Okay, senpai."

**Alan being able to relax and joke with his closest friend (and, if the hunch of everyone in the fandom is correct, much more) Eric Slingby. I don't plan for this story to be very long. Review please! It's super helpful! Allons-y!**

**~Silver**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**The Accident**

Mark and his friends grinned happily and chatted amongst themselves in the back of the lecture hall. They were attending a lecture for one of their classes, and the speaker was supposed to show up soon. The lecture was about Archaeology in the Mayan era, a subject that fascinated Abel. Since it sounded interesting enough, the others had decided to go with him.

Their conversation was interrupted as a tall blonde woman with short hair and green eyes walked onto the podium at the front of the room, several sheets of paper in her hands. She cleared her throat and began to speak, and the group grinned at her thick accent; she was a German historical archaeologist that had flown out to America to do lecture tours around at different schools. They watched as the woman spoke and pointed to pictures displayed on the wall via a power point presentation for a good two hours before the lecture ended and most of the other people left.

"Come on, let's go grab a bite to eat at Cook Out." Gabe suggested with a grin, stretching.

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes. I want to talk to the archaeologist about something." Abel said with a small smile.

"Okay, just hurry it up. I'm starving." Mark complained, getting nods of agreement from Gabe and Valerie.

Abel nodded and walked up to the archaeologist, shaking her hand enthusiastically and speaking with her quickly. The others watched him patiently, waiting only a few minutes before he said his goodbyes and walked back to them. They smiled and filed out of the lecture hall, starting immediately down the road that would lead them to Cook Out. Cook Out was a small fast-food restaurant that had been strategically built right on the edge of campus. Students went there in droves every day because the restaurant had good, cheap food, and was open late into the night.

"What do you guys think you're gonna get?" Mark asked cheerily.

"Probably just a burger. I ate earlier, so I'm not too terribly hungry." Abel replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"Lame. I'm definitely getting one of the milkshakes. That stuff's awesome!" Gabe said with a grin; Cook Out's milkshakes were more accurately described as cups of ice cream, and they were notoriously delicious.

"I don't think anyone is going to be getting anything for a while. Look up there." Valerie said, pointing ahead of them to the place where the road went off campus.

There was a huge crowd of people gathered in a wide circle around something, and smoke could be seen rising up like mist in the night. Flashing red lights alerted the group to the presence of an ambulance, and they jogged up to find out what was going on. People could be heard whispering and crying as they approached, and they had to stand on tiptoe to get a clearer view of what had happened. They gasped at what met their wide eyes.

There had been a car crash, and a terrible one from the looks of it. There were scraps of curled, twisted gray metal littered around the crushed-can remains of the car. It looked like the car had skidded while trying to turn, and done a few rolls before hitting a telephone pole. The driver of the car lay a few feet from it on a stretcher that had been put on the ground, as the ambulance crew was busy trying to get the passengers out of the totaled vehicle.

"Ah, this is awful. She's in my Economics class." Valerie whispered, shuddering.

"I wonder what happened?" Abel asked softly.

"Victoria Clemens, age twenty-two. Driving too fast while trying to get back onto college campus after having a couple of drinks at a local club. Cause of death; internal bleeding."

The group turned quickly to see Alan standing behind them, holding a file in his hands. The Shinigami adjusted his glasses and snapped the file shut, stuffing it into his business suit top. He nodded at the group and strode forward, sliding easily between people as he passed through the crowd.

"What is he doing?" Gabe asked in horror as the man walked out of the crowd and up to the unconscious young woman.

"I think...I think he's about to reap her soul...that must be why no one is reacting to him. He must be masking his presence so they don't interrupt him." Mark whispered, fascinated.

"Then why can we see him?" Valerie asked, clinging to the back of Mark's shirt and hiding her face in it; if Alan was reaping the soul, she didn't want to see it.

Mark watched Alan carefully, and sadness settled into the pit of his stomach.

"He wants us to see what he has to see every day. This is his way of explaining why he was the Shinigami to get cursed with the Thorns of Death. He's showing us the pain he has to go through. In other words...Alan is saying goodbye." he whispered, knowing he was right without having to ask the Shinigami.

The group watched silently as Alan stared down at the dying girl, holding his scythe at his side. His eyes were as cold and emotionless as could be, but it was clear that it had taken a long struggle to close himself off to the pain of the dying. There had once been sorrow, regret, and apology written in those acidic green eyes. Now there was nothing left but cold resignation; now this was just business.

After a moment, Alan lifted his scythe over his head, then brought it down into the girl's stomach quickly. There was no blood, nothing to offer the crowd any glimpse of what was really happening. There was only a loud gasp and a gurgling cry, followed by a spastic twitch and silence. The crowd gasped and started crying as the ambulance crew rushed to her side, not seeing Alan leap away from the body and into a nearby tree.

The group of teenagers watched with wide eyes as Alan held his scythe out over the scene below him. The Shinigami looked almost majestic as brightly glowing strips of what looked like movie film flowed up from the girl's body. They wound themselves loosely around the graceful creature that had summoned them, and he closed his eyes slowly as they flowed into the blade of his scythe. Once all of the film strips had vanished, Alan opened his eyes slowly and looked down at them.

Mark nodded at him, showing that he understood. If they continued to pursue Alan like they did, they would surely make his Thorns worse. It was important that he live as long as possible; he was one of the last Shinigami left that still harbored a tiny amount of compassion for the souls he was in charge of caring for. It would be a sin to cause the death of such a remarkable being.

Alan smiled softly at them and waved before vanishing, leaving the shocked teens to mourn with the rest of the crowd. Their reasons were slightly different, but their tears stung all the same.

**This is going to be a short fic-I have a much better one planned for my Alan-kun! I freaking love Alan! One more chapter, my Silverlings! Hope you're not disappointed! Allons-y!**

**~Silver **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**It's Good to See You Again**

Mark sighed and rolled over in his bed, grumbling at the pain in his chest. His condition was bothering him again. It had been like this for the past year, and was only getting worse. Of course, he didn't expect for it to get any better. Once you hit any age above eighty, things stopped "getting better", and only got worse. He was eighty-seven now, and was in very poor health. He used to joke with his old friends from college that Alan had somehow passed off the Thorns of Death onto him. Of course, even that comfort was gone now. Mark had outlived all of his friends.

He had led a good life. He graduated from college two years after the incident with Alan, and had gone on to get a good job at a marketing firm. He had a family, a nice house, and a successful career. His friends had done pretty well in their own right. Abel had moved back to Japan and become an Archaeology professor. Gabe had moved away and gotten a master's degree in Ecology. Valerie had become a Forensic Psychologist, and had taken the stand in many large criminal trials.

A noise broke Mark from his thoughts, and he turned to look at the door. It had creaked open, and a figure was framed in a thin beam of light. Mark smiled softly; he knew who it was. There was no way it could be anyone else. There wasn't a single other person in the house. Mark lived alone.

"It's been much too long since I last saw you." he whispered with a small smile.

"Indeed. How have you been faring?" Alan Humphries asked, walking into the room and sitting on the edge of Mark's bed.

"Dying. And yourself?"

Alan smirked and gestured to his chest.

"Dying."

Mark sighed and leaned back against his pillow.

"I'm guessing that you're here for my soul?" he asked quietly.

"Yes. Yours is the last soul I will ever reap. After this, my boss is forcing me to retire and spend the rest of my life in peace. I'm going to live with Eric." Alan replied distantly, as if his mind were not completely with him at the moment.

"Well, retirement isn't all that bad. I've been living comfortable for a while. This illness has been problematic, but I deal with it." Mark replied with a chuckle.

"Same. The Thorns have gotten worse, Mark. I am going to die soon. Eric will have to reap my soul." Alan said softly.

"You two seemed close when we saw you talking that time."

Alan sighed and looked down at the old man sadly.

"That's not the half of it. Mark, it's time." he said slowly, standing up.

Mark watched as Alan stood up and looked down at him, holding his scythe out. The Shinigami offered him the ghost of a smile before bringing the blade down in the middle of his stomach. Mark gasped and retched before falling silent. Alan sighed as he collected the man's cinematic record, fighting sadness and watching the memories of the human. Once the soul had been collected, Alan sighed.

He looked around at the photos the old man had hanging on his walls. There were photos of his late wife, his three children, his whole family together. Then there were photos of the other three from the "old gang", as Alan often thought of them. He had reaped each of their souls. He had felt that it made sense for him to be the one to collect the souls of those that knew him.

Valerie had died peacefully in her sleep, and hadn't had the opportunity to speak with Alan. Gabe had been awake-he had been attacked by a burglar in his home and murdered. Abel had gotten ill similarly to Mark, and had spoken with Alan for a few minutes before dying. It had all been very sad, if he were being honest with himself. He suspected that their deaths had been part of the reason that the Thorns of Death had worked their way closer to his heart.

Alan walked silently from the house and started walking down the road, balancing his scythe over his back. He whistled a little bit, somewhat remorsefully as he realized that he had just finished his last reaping. He stopped and stared up into the sky, his eyes softening a little as he watched the twinkling stars above.

"At last...the final soul..."

He sighed and continued walking silently, whistled lightly to himself. The emotional pain of his job was finally over. It was time for the physical pain to become his main focus again.

**Woo, that's it! Short, not my best, but it's done! Allons-y!**

**~Silver**


End file.
